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(Montpellier/France), easily managed to integrate 17 musicians and 17 vocalists from 15 countries in an organic way during the production time of this album… that way giving the (pretty urban) KOALAS DESPERADOS sound enough time to grow, developing more of that common ground with time rather than just enjoying and recording the first chemical reactions of instant collaboration.

The finest beats and riddims, many voices in even more languages, global urban vibes in the mere sense of words, the KOALAS DESPERADOS are much rather an outernational „work in progress“-network than just another studio project with guests coming together for a certain purpose and then go their individual ways again.

Thilo „TEKA“ Jacks and Manar El-Abed have come a long way together, knowing each other since school days and having spent lots of time in closely related band outfits and door-to-door rehearsal rooms of the 90s Frankfurt reggae and punk scene.

While TEKA went on to become co-founder and inhouse-producer of Cologne/Germany based reggae label ROOTDOWN records, mainly taking care of his own FLASHPOINT studios, Manar decided to move to Montpellier (in the south of France) and joined the pro active scene based around the infamous hangout bar “Rebuffy” as a DJ and producer… this way managing to build an impressive amount of contacts to local musicians and MCs.

It wasn’t until 5 years later, when a common friend from „back in the days“ reunited them.They got in touch again, only to immediately start working together right on the spot. And so, the multi cultural, genre bashing musical mix comes naturally to the KOALAS masterminds… both hardly ever did anything else than working on music with talent from all over the world.

„Nobody who took part in this production only mailed a few soundfiles,“ TEKA explains, „we happened to really work and get deep in my studio with almost every KOALA face to face. We all liked this idea from the very beginning… to pull on one string at the same time with dedication, because everybody was feeling it. We all identify with the KOALAS philosophy big time… which causes quite a lot of unexpected extra dynamics.“

Every member has a lot to offer and to bring to the huge KOALAS DESPERADOS table. While D-Flame, Nosliw, Laura Lopez-Castro or Maxim are household names on the german popular music scene, other KOALAS ring quite a few bells in their home countries as well. Stand out talents like Paco Mendoza (Argentinia), Jaqee (Sweden/Uganda), portuguese MC Bezegol, female MC Ms Maiko from Gran Canaria, Macaco and Nubla from Barcelona (Spain) or Hector Gomez a.k.a. Lhabanero (Cuba) guarantee a perfect balance between quality and quantity of musical in- and output.

And that is also why the styles and genres that come together in the KOALAS DESPERADOS sound are as many and versatile as the cultural backgrounds clashing here. Urban sound fueled by Reggae and HipHop for sure… yet at the same time melting in Fado from Portugal, Afrobeat vibes from Burkina Faso and Kamerun and a variety of latin elements as well.

In 2009, the times of all these styles being just something like „exotic flavours“ are definitely over: the KOALAS DESPERADOS enjoy their organic urban life in the global village… and it sure comes natural to them: Legalize Eucalyptus!